The Dead Leg
by Ranger-Corpses
Summary: Most RA fanfics have girl Rangers or thief Rangers. This focuses on a more different aspect in life... Rated T because there may be future chapters that are...interesting. Also the people at FF hq need to add Pauline into the characters slots. Unless I'm blind and I'm overlooking her.


**Edit: I just realized that on none of my stories did I put a disclaimer. SORRY! I own nothing but a small pocket of air that's rapidly depleting. Everything belongs to the one, the only, JOHN FLANAGAN!**

 **Edit edit: I decided this would be just a one-shot because I haven't a clue how Couriers could possibly trained and it's been so long that I've just kinda lost inspiration for this.**

* * *

The girl woke up, heart pounding. She'd been drowning, her lungs bursting with the need for air. She shook her head, trying to dispel the memory.

* * *

 _She jumped, the water rushing past her head with a roar._

 _"Why'd Sam jump?" her sister asked._

 _'Why'd she think I'm Sam?' The girl asked herself._

 _Her legs kicked and flailed, and somehow, she knew she'd never surface alive again. Oddly, she was ok with it. Her lungs bursted, and she knew that soon it would all be over. Then, light flooded her and she woke up._

* * *

She shook her head again, and this time the dream evaporated like fog in the morning. The window showed the stars, shining bright and bold. The wind whispered to her, begging her to run and skip in the long soft grass in the fields, the climb every tree in the forest.

But she couldn't.

Because her leg was dead.

She grabbed her crutches and clipped them onto her wrists, gripping the handles.

"Today is the day," she whispers. "Choosing Day."

* * *

She groaned as she walked into the room, and Baron Arald looked sympathetically at her.

"I don't need your sympathy, my lord." she says gruffly. Arald just nods, and looks elsewhere.

"Ok everyone, in size place! Tallest here, shortest here!" Martin, Baron Arald's secretary bellowed. She groans again and finds her place, somewhere int he middle. First it's Bobby, a tall gangly boy, then Kerry, and medium height girl. Then it's her, just barely below Kerry with her leg held in metal braces and crutches strapped to her wrists. Last it's little Billy, Bobby's twin.

"Hurry up, hurry up now!" Martin yells. "Craftmasters coming soon!"

Finally, after much more yelling from Martin they came in. First Pauline, closely followed by Nigel, then Rodney followed by Ulf who had been discussing the training of the horses. Last was Chubb, with his ever present ladle, his weapon of choice.

"First up!" Martin yelled, making an obvious attempt to not be as loud as his normal self.

"Billy Carrolik, sir. I wish to apply in Scribeschool." Billy says, his voice loud and clear. Nigel walks up to him, looking him over with a critical eye.

"I think he'll do, and if he won't, we'll soon find out!" Nigel says, smiling.

"Next!" Martin calls.

"Kerry, sir. Horseschool, please." Kerry said, her eyes shining with hope. Martin, having learned his lesson with Will, didn't badger her for her last name.

Ulf says yes immediately, and she knew that it had been prearranged. Baron Arald nods, and Martin calls for the next person.

Who is her.

"My name is Moth, and I wish to apply to Diplomatic Services." Moth says. Pauline comes over and eyes her.

"Excuse me, but what's with your leg?" Pauline asks gently.

"It's dead." Moth says bluntly. Pauline nods and thinks for a second.

"I accept, and we'll see how she does the first three months." Pauline says, and the crippled girl lets out a huge sigh of relief.

* * *

 _So ya, this Idea came about when I was lying in bed and I curled up and my right leg was left dangling over the side of the bed. *Sighs* Ah, the things you get inspiration from. What do you get inspiration from?_

 _This is a bit different writing style than what I'm used to, but I wanted to try new something out. I noticed that for a lot of the books I'm writing in my free time, I've been using the first person, or I and me, so I decided to do this. Third person. Which was actually hard, considering that it's 1am and I haven't had my coffee yet. No, wait, just checked the clock, it's 1:52am._

 _At the beginning I wanted to try something new and say she and her instead of just giving you a name right away, and gave it to her later on in the chapter. Like, way later._

 _What do you think?_

 _Also, yes, I did take that dream from my own life. My sister did think I was my friend, Sam, in the dream. No, not Sam, Sam as in short for Samantha. XD And yes, I was ok with drowning in my dream. And when I woke up, I had been holding my breath. I wonder what would've happened if I hadn't woken up..._

 _Question of the day:_ _If you could do anything, what would you do?_

 _A.) Bring Alyss back_

 _B.) Make Gilan and Jenny marry_

 _C.) Reverse Maddie's limp_

 _D.) Make Will have explosives during Burning Bridge_

 _A vote, a vote! Yayyyyyy! Anyways, choose your answer and see who got the majority!_

 _See ya peepz!_

 _Writer's Block, over._

 _PS: But seriously. I want some Will/explosives action. I feel like it would be awesome. *gasps* MY NEXT FANFIC WILL BE THAT!_


End file.
